An Introduction to Iota Force

So, since I started publishing the Iota Force series, I've been worrying about the prospect of continuity lockout. After all, I'm hoping to make this a very long series (key word: hoping) and all the stories so far have been relatively long, something I don't see changing that much. I mean, they won't ever be Diaries of a Madman or The Chase length, but still long enough that expecting readers to be able to read through the entire series before starting on the latest story would be rather unfeasible.

Don't get me wrong, I don't intend for that to be necessary – it's my firm hope that anyone can pick up one of these stories and have fun with them without needing a doctoral thesis on the series – but I can't be certain that later stories will succeed in that goal.

As such, I decided to write up and periodically update a blog post giving some basic details about the premise, characters and previous stories of the series. Just an introduction, mind you – nothing too in depth and with any spoilers appropriately hidden. Hopefully, this should be enough for people to get started with later stories in the series.

So, without further ado: an introduction to Iota Force!

The Premise

In Equestria, monsters and villains come in all shapes and especially all sizes. While many of these threats can be dealt with by the Elements of Harmony (both the group and the artefacts), the Royal Guard or similarly adult ponies, there are some that require more specialist attention.

In particular, while it is not common, there are some dangers that come from a place below where many a sentinel would not think to look. Magic and power pervade through most things in Equestria and sometimes, that means that even children can become major threats to individuals, settlements or even all of lifekind.

Sometimes, these threats merely appear to be children. Sometimes, they are ordinary colts and fillies who have been corrupted by some internal or external force. Often enough, they're simply children who have become misguided, insane, evil or all of the above – sometimes, kids can be messed up.

However, this presents a problem. While there are plenty of adults who can match or overcome the power these children may wield, they usually cannot help having some reticence to hurt children. No matter how powerful or vicious a child may be, most adults will underestimate them and hold back against them. But being young rarely makes them less dangerous, so such inhibitions cannot be allowed to interfere with combating these threats. Unfortunately, there are few adults that lack those inhibitions and those that do are not those that can be trusted to defend others.

As such, Ponyville is home to a group of pre-teen crimefighters dedicated to battling such threats, consisting of those who are powerful and skilled enough to do so, while remaining young enough that they can be relied upon to put their all into the fight. After all, the only good pony who would bring their full might to bear against a child... is another child.

Reporting to a special branch of the Night Guard, it is the solemn duty of these colts and fillies to defend Ponyville from all threats below an adult's eyeline.

They are Ponyville's premier prepubescent protectors, patrollers and punchers of pint-sized plotters, pillagers and profligates.

They are...

Iota Force!

The Characters

Archer:

Powers and abilities: Near-peerless marksmare – capable of hitting targets other could barely see at a moment's notice. Extremely sharp senses, particularly eyesight, and can almost instantly calculate trajectories and ballistic factors with clinical precision. Capable of using a bow and arrow with hooves (doing such things with hooves is a power common to nearly all ponies, but still relevant due to its inexplicability)

Personality: Archer is almost pathologically relaxed. She is so completely confident in her own abilities with a bow and arrows that it is almost impossible to worry or annoy her. Whether she's hanging upside down from a tree branch by her tail, faced with a horde of rats ready to attack at a moment’s notice or climbing a small mountain during a hurricane, she can be relied upon to remain calm and easy-going. As one can imagine, she thinks very highly of her abilities, and yet she is not at all vain. She knows that her skills are exceptional, but sees no need to boast about them and doesn't spend much time revelling in them. Instead, she regards her talent as simply “something cool I can do.” However, her confidence does sometimes lead her into situations that are too much for her.

Alula:

Powers and abilities: Shape shifter – able to transform into ponies (and, indeed, many quadrupeds) her size, smaller or slightly larger. Cannot mimic adults yet. Natural state has horns and wings, but cannot use magic or fly. Emits field of mental magic that makes ponies notice discrepancies in her appearance less. Genius intellect, skilled in both deception and investigation.

Personality: Alula is half-changeling and has, it seems, inherited a natural caution, not helped by having to hide this fact from most ponies. She tries to avoid directly engaging the enemy when she can, preferring to remain hidden or in the background. Immensely intelligent and extremely logical, she is unquestionably regarded as the brains of the outfit (though far from the only smart one). Her observational skills are first-class, but she isn't always great at reading ponies. She's somewhat socially withdrawn – not shy, but prefers to simply listen and let others talk unless she has something to say. She's something of a pessimist, but prefers to simply think that she knows how things can go wrong. However, she is dedicated to doing good with her abilities as much as she can, even if she doesn't want glory for it.

Dinky Doo:

Powers and abilities: Novice chronomancer – capable of casting spells affecting or interacting with the flow of time. Degree is small, but more than her age should allow and still extremely effective. Almost preternaturally cute.

Personality: It has been theorized that Dinky Doo once had a mean bone in her body, but that it felt so bad for being mean around her that it either reformed or disappeared. Dinky is unfailingly optimistic, kind, polite, humble, and encouraging. Her faith in other ponies is near-implacable and she is always eager to see the best in everyone that she meets. That said, despite seeming rather naïve, she is far from stupid. In fact, she is extremely empathetic and good at reading ponies. While most agree Alula is the primary detective of the team, she will often defer to Dinky when evaluating their foes. Like Alula, Dinky prefers to stay out of a fight herself, but in her case, this is mostly due to not wanting to directly hurt anyone else. She will instead stay on the sidelines and use her time magic to aid the others in the team. She will usually try to understand an enemy’s reasons for doing what they do and sees what the team does as being as much about intervention as crime-fighting – getting them to stop hurting themselves as well as others. However, she will not hesitate to aid the team in any way she can to stop or capture them. Again, though idealistic, she is not stupid.

Lance:

Powers and abilities: Expert swordscolt – specializing in rapier, but capable of using anything from a foil to a broadsword to a katana. Extremely nimble, acrobatic and unintentionally stylish in his swordplay. Somehow managed to go over six years without anyone making fanart or fanfic about him (yes, he's only onscreen for a few seconds, but this fandom's done more with less).

Personality: One or two of his teammates have commented that Lance is incredibly dangerous, both to enemies with the stick in his hand and to fun with the one up his backside. He wears a fencing mask when on the job, but even in everyday life, his face doesn't move much. He is not unemotional, merely very, very serious about his work. He is entirely mute due to a birth defect, but even if he weren't, he would be very concise and taciturn. He communicates through gesture and, despite only having hooves to do so and not usually bothering with actual sign language unless he needs to use specific words, he invariably manages to get across what he means, even to those who are still getting to know him. However, he doesn't even do this much, preferring to focus on action rather than communication. As such, outside of direct combat, it is often easy to forget that he is there. However, in combat, it is near impossible not to notice him, not just because of his skill, but because he has an amazing and entirely unintentional talent for style and flourish in his fighting. He can leap and dart about like he's straight out of a swashbuckler film and tends towards impressive displays, even though, to his mind, they are simply the most effective means to an end. He holds little regard for such showboating, seeing himself a protector, first and foremost. He will go to any lengths to defend the innocent.

Scootaloo:

Powers and abilities: Extremely fast and agile on scooter – considered by those who know her to be the second fastest pony in Ponyville (and will resist any attempt to place her higher). Tends towards hit-and-run jousting attacks with a thin pipe she refers to as her “ramming stick”. Has the rare ability of “actual established character on the show”, but this is unlikely to come up.

Personality: Like her idol, Scootaloo is a mare of action. While not an idiot, she is very impulsive and sometimes rather reckless. This is not without reason, as she does think on her feet (or rather, hooves, or rather, wheels) very well and doesn't see much value in her standing around waiting rather than going into action. She doesn't begrudge others spending time thinking and planning, but doesn't believe that she's much use when they are. Far better that she do something – scout ahead, leap into the fray, chase down the enemy or get them to chase her. She likes getting into things and dislikes slowing down or stopping. She loves using her skills and showing them off, again like her idol. However, she doesn't tend to brag and prefers to show her skills rather than talk about them.

Truffle Shuffle

Powers and abilities: Special talent for eating allows him to eat massively and still remain fit. As such, is extremely strong, extremely tough and extremely heavy. Metabolism tends to compress fat, so flab is very noticeable but not enough to impede movement. Wears enchanted bodysuit to protect skin, relies on fat to protect everything else. Can deliver hard punches and kicks, but preferred attack vector is belly flopping on enemies.

Personality: Truffle is loud, boisterous, cheerful and good-humoured. He has a tremendous joie de vivre and throws himself into every activity, whether it's a meal, a conversation or a battle. He is tremendously proud of his weight and will happily joke or boast about it. That said, he hates it when people call him chubby, pudgy or husky, as he is none of those things – he is full-on fat, thank you very much. He has a voice like a foghorn and enjoys using it, be it with encouraging words, raucous laughter or a simple bellow at his enemies. The word “Banzai” is a particular favourite when he jumps at his opponents, even though he has no idea what it means. He is extremely thick-skinned (metaphorically as well as physically) and always tries to keep everypony else's spirits up. He does have some difficulty with restraint. Not stopping himself exactly, but moderating himself. He has no problem holding himself back from a fight, for example, but when in one, doesn't tend to pull his punches. In most of his activities, he tends to give all or nothing. However, he is extremely protective of his friends (in particular, his marefriend Twist), so where they are concerned, it is invariably all.

Icy Flight (OC):

Powers and abilities: Able to make freezing gusts with her wing and create large amounts of ice. Impervious to all but the deepest cold, but has trouble dealing with heat.

Personality: Icy is, as yet, mostly unable to fly, but still somehow manages to keep her head in the clouds. She is very spacey and prone to going off on mental tangents at the slightest provocation. She has a tendency not to realize the impact of what's happening around her until after it's happened, if she notices at all. As such, whenever she encounters new and weird events, which is often, she'll often take them in stride unless and until she has a chance to actually think about them. She has a very weak attention span to most things other than comics - she can read them solidly for hours on end and will happily demonstrate if given the opportunity. She is still learning the ropes and finding her place on the team, but has a deep-seated desire to do good, so she's confident she will find her place.

Supporting characters

Pipsqueak: Team's liason with Canterlot – handles all administrative duties (such as they are) and allows his house to be used as a headquarters for the team.

Sunny Flight: Icy's Mother. Unicorn. Retired despite being relatively young. Is fully aware of Icy's role on the team and trusts her, the team and the Night Guard as a whole to keep her safe.

Nursery Rhyme: Team's official medic. Is regarded as having the highest grump-to-body-mass ratio in Ponyville. Not heartless, simply has no patience for those who get themselves injured. As assigned medic to a superhero team, this is often relevant.

Colonel Bridge Steward: Head of the BEOID (See Other institutions) Based in Canterlot. Entirely unfazed by whatever insanity finds Equestria and the team. Clipped South Trottingham accent and distinctive moustache not at all appropriate for promotion to Brigadier.

À La Mode: The BEOID's resident costume designer/mad scientist. Responsible for the powerful suits each member of Iota Force wears and happy to demonstrate their wonder at any opportunity. Is not against capes in principle - acknowledges that they can be both effective and good-looking accessories, but still willing to put her hoof down if necessary and say "no capes!"

Other Institutions

The BEOID: The Bureau of Extranormal Observation, Investigation and Defense, Iota Force's parent organization. Has many groups of various kinds under its umbrella. Colloquially referred to as the Weirdness Patrol.

The Eyrie: The Equestrian Reformatory for Extraordinary Young Inmates. Prison for foals with unusual or powerful abilities, designed to be able to adapt its security to whatever its inmates can do. Located on the mountainside above Canterlot, hence the name. Name is also an anagram of an acronym, or vice versa, dubbed an Acronynogram by Icy.

Story Summaries

Warning: Do not read if you have any intention of experiencing these stories as they were written. Future stories will attempt to either avoid plot points necessitating prior knowledge or explain them. These summaries are not intended as a substitute for experiencing the stories themselves. Only read if you're okay with the full plots being spoiled.

Issue #1: Baptism by Fire

Icy Flight has recently moved into Ponyville. After she finishes settling in, she goes for a walk to familiarize herself with the town. However, she wanders out into the surrounding countryside, where she encounters a group of colt-sized lava golems. They immediately attack her, but she is saved by the arrival of Scootaloo and Dinky. Thanks to their skills and a strange ability of Icy's to slow them down with gusts from her wings, they hold the golems off until they discover that cooling them in the river destroys them. They manage to lure them into the river using their unexplained animosity towards Icy.

The next day, after school and talking with Dinky, Icy encounters another group fighting Lance and Archer in the park. They manage to use some of the water of the park's fountain to destroy them. After this, Icy is invited to the group's headquarters (aka Pip's house) and, after another encounter where she is saved by Alula and Truffle, she meets the team officially and is asked to accompany them to find the source of the golems. She agrees and, the next day, they travel out to rocky area near Mount Canter.

There, they meet a colt named Fire Eyes, who is responsible for creating the golems and has the power to create and influence lava. He is also completely dedicating to destroying as much property and hurting as many ponies as possible, with a particular, though inexplicable, hatred for Icy. He and his golems attack the team, with he himself focused on Icy.

He fires a glob of lava at her, intending to kill her. However, in a moment of both panic and desire for the hatred to end, Icy manages to summon up a gust that freezes the lava and creates ice on the ground around it. She manages to summon up the same energy once again and freeze the golems, destroying them. However, Fire Eyes himself escapes by creating a lava tunnel in the rock wall.

Returning to Ponyville, she meets with Pip and Princess Luna, who explains the purpose of the team and offers her a place on it. After some consideration and consulting with her mother, she accepts.

Issue #2: A Hair Out of Place

A few weeks after their encounter with Fire Eyes, a strange robbery at the Ponyville Hospital gets Iota Forces attention, as there is evidence that the burglar was the size of a colt or filly. However, all that was stolen was a load of lenses and no more robberies take place for around a week. When one does, it is at a restaurant that Icy and Truffle are close enough to intercept. They are caught unaware, however, and are restrained by what feels like a pony's hair. Though they manage to escape, they do not capture the culprit or prevent her from stealing a large halogen oven. Icy begins to suspect she might be using the bulb and lenses to create a makeshift laser.

Later, during a party at Sugarcube Corner, Icy finds a red powder that was also found at the two crime scenes, leading the team to believe that it will be the thief's next target. Lying in wait, they ambush her during the night, only to find that she seems to be a child version of the Mane-iac. Dubbed the Miniac by Archer, she manages to hold off the team and escape with several bags of sugar, which Icy presumes to be to get energy for the Laser.

After Pinkie confirms that, age aside, it definitely seems to be the Mane-iac, they go to see the local expert on all things Power Ponies, Spike. After an argument between Icy and Spike that starts about the fact that she doesn't like the Power Ponies and quickly derails into general fan-argument, they deduce that it is likely an enchanted comic that is responsible.

Over the next week, the Miniac strikes a couple of times, but never for long enough for Iota Force to intercept. However, they manage to pin down a likely spot for her base of operations somewhere in Sweet Apple Acres. Going to investigate, Archer, Scootaloo and Icy find her loot in a disused barn. They retreat for the moment in case there are any traps or surprises. However, they are unaware that they tripped an alarm during their investigation.

That night, the team go to the barn and break in, looking around for anything that might have been left to attack them. However, they do not expect the Miniac herself to be there. She ambushes them with several pouches of thick liquid. She tells them that it is a variation on a love poison that will render them subservient to her will. However, when a drop falls into Icy's mouth, she reveals that it is, in fact, rice pudding – a result of the Miniac misunderstanding a scribbled comment next to the recipe.

However, the humour from this quickly dies down for two reasons. Firstly, Icy accidentally gives her the idea to create a laser with the stolen goods and secondly, thanks to accidentally letting her lisp slip, they realize that they are facing the spirit of the Mane-iac possessing the body of Twist. They do manage to stop her from taking the sugar she had stolen, but she escapes by threatening to kill Twist if they stop her.

Fortunately, thanks to an offhand comment, they realize that she is intending to get enough candy to power her laser during the Nightmare Night festivities. They also hear back from Spike, who has found out that the Miniac can be re-contained if she in any way enters the comic she escaped from. After retrieving said comic from Twist's house, they use a large amount of candy to bait the Miniac into a confrontation in the woods.

Archer, Lance, Scootaloo and Icy engage the Miniac, keeping her busy and making her use up what candy she'd already taken. When she goes to get more, she finds that the entire pile has been eaten by Truffle, sped up by Dinky. At that moment, she hears another filly approaching, so grabs her and steals her candy bag. She reaches in to grab some candy, only to find that the bag instead contains the comic, open and ready to take her back in. The filly she grabbed then reveals herself as Alula and the Miniac is contained.

Twist is understandably traumatized by the experience, but Truffle comforts his Marefriend and accompanies her home, ready to do anything to help her recover. After being assured that Twist will receive the best psychiatric help and that she will recover, Icy and the others go to attend the celebration. There, Icy meets Spike again and they go around the town together, Icy having made a new friend.

Issue #3: The Treachery of Images

One morning, Spike and Twilight find that a huge picture has been painted onto the path in front of their castle - a pentagram with a different picture in each of the five points. Iota Force is alerted and all but Icy realize that this is the work of a foe they've encountered before - Magic Eye, a genius colt who gives clues to his crimes before he commits them, challenged his opponents to solve them. The pictures, combined with written puzzle he sends, combine to tell Iota Force where he is planning to strike.

They manage to solve his first puzzle and intercept him at the Carousel Boutique, preventing him from robbing the place but failing to apprhend him. However, though they successfully solve the second puzzle and go to intercept him at the Town Hall, it turns out that he did not, in fact, break in that night. Despite this, he sends them a message congratulating them on getting it right - his puzzle did allude to a robbery of the Town Hall, he just wasn't doing it.

The next night, however, they fail. They come to the conclusion that he is targeting Filthy Rich's "first baby" and assume he is intending to rob Diamond Tiara's house. However, he was actually referring to Barnyard Bargains, having included a line drawing of a barnyard the team failed to account for.

The next night, they solve the riddle and realize he is alluding to a rainbow waterfall, assuming he is going to go to Rainbow Falls for some reason. Scootaloo heads off for there alone, since she is the only one fast enough to reach there in time. However, while going to Rainbow Dash's house to ask her a favour on Scootaloo's behalf, Icy notices the waterfalls of liquid rainbow that fall from it and calls Scootaloo back. The two do just catch up to Magic Eye, but only after he had taken what he came for, leading him to declare that night a draw. Using his loot as a distraction allows him to escape, leaving what would seem to be the final puzzle.

Unfortunately, the group has no idea what this puzzle means, so they resolve to simply go out on patrol, hoping to catch him in the act. However, it turns out that he was targetting the group's headquarters (i.e. Pip's basement). Strangely, though, not only does he make it clear that he had one more crime planned, but he once again specifically declined to actually take anything, merely coming in, subduing Pip, explaining that he wasn't robbing him and leaving.

The group assume that he will contact them again at a later date for the final puzzle, only for Icy to realize that, because of the wording of his initial message and a scheduled rainstorm that would wipe away the picture, he would be moving that night. However, they have no additional puzzle, they simply have to "complete the picture".

After a long time trying and failing to figure out what he means, they think about the two times he targetted a place, but didn't rob it. After a bit more thinking, they realize that, if you take away the points containing those pictures for the overall drawing, it changes - not a pentagram, but an arrow pointing at the castle.

Racing over there, they head inside, with Archer staying outside and hiding, ready to snipe him if necessary. Once inside, they find him in the process of taking a rare, priceless magical diamond Twilight has been doing research on. He stops, however, and admits defeat when the group arrive. At least, in terms of his game. He still attempts to escape by setting an unknown machine off, briefly blinding them with the diamond and running up the wall and ceiling and over the group. Dinky stays behind to deal with the machine, leaving the rest to chase him through the castle.

However, when Magic Eye tried to exit, he runs into a pair of policeponies, apparently summoned by a silent alarm Twilight placed around the diamond. The group initially accepts this until they notice that Archer hasn't revealed herself, suggesting something fishy is going on. Icy asks about the alarm and why Twilight and Spike weren't awoken. However, while their explanation almost makes sense, they refer to Spike as a pony, tipping the group off that they're not from Ponyville, despite claiming to be.

The fake policeponies attempt to attack and allow Magic Eye to escape, but Icy breaks off and gives chase. Unfortunately, he is far more fit than she is and seems like he'll be able to outpace her. However, thanks to an earlier accident, she gets the idea to create ice slides to increase her speed, allowing her to keep on his tail all the way to Ghastly Gorge.

Once there, she tells him to give back the diamond, only for him, rather offended, to tell her he left it in the castle, having accepted that he had been beaten at his own game. He dives into the gorge, not expecting Icy to leap after him and glide them both down to the bottom. He explains that he was intending to hide in one of the numerous caves along the gorge walls, but her reaction caught him by surprise. However, in the lull that follows, he manages to distract her enough to catch her unawares with a smoke bomb and run up the cliffside, apologizing sincerely and promising to meet again.

Upon returning to the castle, Princess Twilight thanks the group for saving the diamond and asks Icy if there is anything she can do to thank her. After a small bit of arm-twisting, Icy asks for help learning about her magic and, possibly, being put onto someone who can teach her how to ice skate. As Twilight assures her that she knows somepony, Icy silently promises that the next time they encounter Magic Eye, she'll be ready for him.

Issue #4: Skitter, Scurry and Screech

After a nerve-wracking lesson from Pinkie on ice-skating over a frozen lake, Icy hears from Apple Bloom that Applejack has been a touch irritable lately. This doesn't really stick with icy until, a couple of days later, she encounters Applejack while returning a book to Princess Twilight's library. Upon hearing that the problem is that someone has been stealing apples, Icy is momentarily underwhelmed before a tirade from Applejack makes clear exactly how much of a problem this is. Applejack informs her that she spent all night guarding her apple cellar and saw no one, but the thie(f/ves) still managed to get in and out with more apples, despite Twilight telling her that it couldn't have been via teleportation. Furthermore, Applejack says that many farmers have been experiencing similar thefts.

Upon hearing this, Icy offer her help and that of her team in staking out the cellar and finding out who is behind the burglaries. That night, after a spectacularly boring stakeout, they do indeed find out who has been stealing produce. Or rather, what - rats, multitudinous and unnaturally organized. Unfortunately, most of them get away, but they do manage to catch one, who they bring to Applejack. It's agreed that, while she takes the rat to Fluttershy to see what she can get out of it, Iota Force will investigate where the rats would have come from - the sewers.

The next morning, Icy, Archer and Dinky go down there, travelling through the worryingly silent tunnels until they find where the rats would have come from to get to Sweet Apple Acres. Using Dinky's chronometry, they're able to track the path the rats took until they reach a small cavern, in which sits a huge pile of stolen, rotten-or-rotting food and a filthy, bed-like pile of straw with an indentation large enough for a young pony.

Before they can think more on this, they hear a noise from behind them and see just such a pony just as they turn a corner and flee. The three give chase, taking a while to catch up to their quarry before Dinky can slow them down and let the team take a good look. It's a young colt, filthy and clearly feral, but they don't have time to question him before they're ambushed by more rats attacking and disrupting Dinky's hold, clearly trying to protect him and ensure his getaway. After the team deal with the rats, they pursue him once more, only to be stopped by a literal army of rats blocking their path down each exit to a four-way junction. They remain there until it's certain that the team can't track the colt's location, whereupon they leave. Upon making their way back to the cavern, the group finds the bed and food pile gone, relocated while they were busy chasing the colt. Furthermore, the rats this time took much more varied, random and criss-crossing paths, foiling Dinky ability to track them.

The next morning, they try to think of a way to find the colt again, reasoning that, even if the thefts have stopped for now, they would resume sooner or later. After a bit of time, they hit upon the idea of putting a tracking spell on a piece of food and letting the rat they caught return with it. They head over to Fluttershy's, where they learn from her that the colt is named Skrik and that the rats regard him as a friend as well as a leader. They give the rat an apple and set it free to return to Skrik.

Later, after figuring out where the apple has been taken, Icy and Lance travel back into the sewers, this time from an entrance at a sewage treatment plant. As they travel, Icy blocks up all the exits they pass with ice before they reach Skrik's new hideout. From there, another chase ensues where they corral him down the tunnel they came through, where he finds himself unable to divert his path deeper into the tunnels and forced to run towards the exit.

Before they reach it, however, Skrik locks up and screams. Icy and Lance come closer, whereupon he suddenly speaks and begs them not to force him outside, clearly terrified of the open space. Icy tries to get talking with him and, while things are initially not promising, a quick talk with one rat seems to bring Skrik round to the idea. However, before they can talk, an absolute flood of rats comes streaming down the tunnels, ready to attack the intruders and protect Skrik. Despite the colt's best efforts to calm the situation, Icy finds herself picked up by the tide of rats and carried outside, ready to be dumped into one of the treatment plant's pools.

Naturally terrified, Icy is incredibly thankful when a few arrows from Archer disperse the crowd under her. However, just as she's getting up and regaining her balance, Truffle slams down next to her, not realizing that the tremor he sends through the ground would be enough to topple her over and send her plunging into the pool. He tries to catch her, but to no avail.

Icy, unable to swim, sinks rapidly and soon gets caught up in the pool's outflow pipe. The pool in question was the final one where the water was fully purified, so, despite her best efforts, she gets pulled down and dumped out under the Ponyville Lake, where the thick ice covering it prevents her from surfacing. Consumed by fear and despair, she is convinced that she about to die.

However, a hoof then grabs her and pulls her deeper into the lake, bringing her into a small, air-filled cave attached to the sewers. Before she falls unconscious, she sees that the pony who saved her was, in fact, Skrik.

Later, she wakes up being carried to safety through the sewer tunnels by the others. She confirms that Skrik had dived in to save her, though she doesn't quite know why. She'd brought to the hospital, where she gets a brutal tongue-lashing from Nursery Rhyme, the team's assigned medic despite her wish not to be. While there, she'd joined by her mother and announces her intention to go back down into the sewers the next day. Despite Nursery Rhyme's... less than enthused response to the idea, it's agreed and, the next day, she, Dinky and Alula head down.

After getting Skrik's attention, they manage to get him talking and, with some difficulty, get him to understand that the food that he had been stealing belonged to other ponies and that they needed it. When asked why he had risked his life to save Icy, he told her that the previously-captured rat told him how she'd given it food and, despite Icy letting it slip that this was partially to track him, he maintains that this means that she's "nice". However, this still leaves the question of how he's expected to survive. However, Alula has an idea about that: effectively, to bring him into government employ to help work the sewers with his army of "friends". She initially thinks to send him to Canterlot but, upon conversing with Colonel Steward, the team's superior, it's decided to keep him in Ponyville until a psychiatrist can both certify him as safe and prepare him for the journey.

Still, things seem to have worked out well. That is, until the sight of a full bath gives Icy a panic attack, her near-drowning having intensified her already tense relationship with water into full-on aquaphobia. Still, her mother understands, helps her and does her best to make it clear that it's not Icy's fault. Icy isn't especially comforted, but is nevertheless determined to get through this.

Issue #5: A Sheet in the Wind

In the skies near Canterlot, a noble couple traveling by chariot are surprised when a masked young colt drops in on them. The colt then start using origami and papercraft creations, given life through his special talent as displayed in his visible cutie mark, to subdue the ponies around him - first using some buzzsaws to force the pegasi pulling the chariot to keep riding, then using shuriken to disable the nobles' horns and finally paper chains to bind their hooves. That done, he robs the couple, introduces himself as the Paper Prince and escapes on a giant paper aeroplane.

Later, after a session of exposure therapy hoping to, eventually cure her aquaphobia, Icy answers her door to find Pipsqueak there with news of an assignment in Canterlot. He gives her a permission slip for Sunny to sign before heading off. Sunny gives her permission, of course, and also says that she'll visit Canterlot as well, having not been for a while. The next day, the group gathers at the train station, most of them to leave but, in Archer and Scootaloo's cases, to see them off - neither could get their permission slips signed, so they'll have to join them later, if at all.

Once in Canterlot, despite Icy's desire to see the sights, the group reports directly to Colonel Steward, who briefs them on the situation regarding the Paper Prince. Looking at a sketch artist's image of him, Icy notices something odd - he's masked and suited up to hide his identity, but his cutie mark, an easy identifier, is displayed prominently. Dinky then surprises Icy by shushing her and announcing she has a theory about why, but things are interrupted when news comes in of a distress flare being activated.

After being teleported to where the flare was detected, the group sees a group of paper ponies chasing down an armoured cart, with the Paper Prince riding on one's back and using a huge paper mace to batter it. Alula splits off while the rest give chase, eventually catching up and powering through most of the forces. The Prince uses paper springs to get onto the cart's roof where, after some difficulty, Lance joins him and engages him in combat. With the help of the others, Lance eventually disarms the Prince, who uses the springs still on his hooves to leap off and land on the back of one of his remaining paper minions. The two begin to escape... only for the minion to buck him off and pin him down, capturing him briefly. Unfortunately, once the others have caught up, the minion that Alula had replaced catches up and knocks the group off balance long enough for the Prince to escape on his plane.

Returning to base, the Colonel debriefs the group, wherein Dinky says that she believes the reason the Prince is doing what he is is because he wants to show how powerful and useful his talent can be - he's seeking validation. Icy is somewhat surprised at Dinky's empathetic abilities, but the group is unable to predict where he'll strike next. They head to bed, where Sunny visits and offers to take Icy around the city early the next morning. Icy agrees, but unfortunately those plans are scuppered when it turns out the Prince struck again.

Overnight, it turns out that he had targeted a group of river smugglers, using a school of paper piranha to herd them into their caves and then a swarm of bats to disable them, tying them up and leaving them hanging outside. From this, Iota Force notices a pattern in his robberies - first one in the air, then on land and then in the water. Icy suggests that the natural next step would be a train robbery and the group returns to base.

After a very long wait, a train does indeed send off a distress flare and the group is teleported to meet it. Once on top of it, they confront the Prince and his horde of paper ponies, distracting him long enough for Icy to freeze everything he stole in place, keeping him from taking it. However, the Prince then sends a pair of shuriken off and cuts the train's brake lines, forcing the group to focus on stopping the train rather than chasing him as he flies away and his minions leap off the train.

The group makes their way to the front of the train, where Dinky goes into the engine compartment to see if she can slow things down. While that happens, the group decide to try and fix the brake lines with Icy's freezing gusts. It takes a lot of work, but they do eventually manage to reattach them... only for the pressure to be too much and the ice to shatter. Lance's sword also gets lost, as Icy was using it as a handhold while trying to get at the brake lines and it gets knocked off. At a loss, they go to try and disconnect the other cars... only for the train to start slowing down on its own. As it turns out, being steam powered, all the engineer had to do was stop putting coal in the engine and it would eventually stop on its own, hastened by Dinky. Alula, having nearly burnt out her brain trying to think of something, is... frustrated.

When they return to base, Icy accompanies Lance as he goes to get a new weapon, eventually settling on a Katana-Wakizashi combo. However, before they can leave, they are interrupted by À La Mode, the resident costume designer, who has just finished Icy's costume. After bringing Icy into her workshop/laboratory, Mode scares her as she demonstrates the damage the suit can survive, then shows how it can aid her powers by preventing her freezing energy from diffusing into the air as it travels along her wings, allowing her to use her full power and tripling the power of her gusts. As Icy muses on this, she realizes something: like the materials of the suit, the large paper the Prince needed to use had to come from somewhere. Upon discussing it with the group, they realize that a paper mill would be the most likely place.

The next day, they make their way to just such a mill, abandoned and perfect for use as a base. When there, they start to get in, only to be interrupted by the guards - a horde of paper spiders, as well as one massive one. The mill being next to a river, Icy has a bit of trouble, but the group still manages to make considerable headway into the swarm before Alula is jumped in the air and almost carried to the river. However, she's saved by Scootaloo, who'd managed to get her slip signed earlier than expected and came to help out. With her aid, they take care of the last of the spiders and make their way inside.

There, they find plans to rob the First Bank of Canterlot, along with a diary that describes how tired the Prince has gotten as he made more creations. Icy realizes that, as their meetings went on, the Prince has gotten more and more lathargic and Alula deduces that he suffers from Sipper's Syndrome, a rare condition meaning his body doesn't prevent him from using up his magic once he reaches the point of exhaustion. However, that thought is interrupted with the news that the Prince has already struck, meaning Iota Force needs to get extracted to stop him.

The Prince, meanwhile, has smashed through the bank wall with a giant paper rhino, disabled the horns of the security guards and covered both the doors and the hole he made with walls. When Iota Force arrive, it seems like they won't be able to get in until Icy, due to her phobia, notices a fountain coming from another wall of the bank and, much to her own horror, realizes it's a way to get in.

The group get in just as the vault is opened, allowing Icy to freeze it shut and the group to engage the forces, including the rhino, in battle. At first, things seem stacked against them, but then Alula manages to sneak around the fray and free one of the guards' horns, allowing him to free the others and the tides to turn. The Prince tries to summon his plane to flee, but Scootaloo, who had broken off and gone onto the roof in anticipation, intercepts it and, with the others' help, drives it into the rhino, destroying both.

Truffle and Lance then engage the Prince, focusing on disarming him and forcing him to make more creations until, eventually, he's unable to do anything and barely able to move. Confused, Icy tells him they just needed to get to him and exhaust him, in the process finally managing to come up with a good quip.

In the aftermath, Sunny meets up with Icy, offering once more to guide her around Canterlot, only for Icy herself to be too exhausted to do so for a while. As a compromise, Sunny brings her up to a high ridge with a telescope so they can look around the city without actually having to go anywhere.

A week later, Dinky visits the Prince in prison, surprising him with her assessment of him and, eventually, managing to both make him see all the ponies he hurt, despite previously thinking his crimes were effectively victimless, and convince him that she's on his side, wants him to get better and knows, for a fact, that he can.

Issue #6: The Crystal Caves of Confuzzlation

Icy and the children from the Ponyville schoolhouse are heading up for a week-long field trip (or, as they all think of it, vacation) to the Crystal Empire, rumors suggesting it's to get them out of the way during Winter Wrap-Up preparations. While on the train there, they find out that, by coincidence, a class from Manehattan are also heading up there on the same train. This includes Babs Seed, increasing the number of Crusaders in the area to four and worrying every adult and most kids in the room.

Despite this, things seem to go fine for the first day of the trip. On the second after their arrival, however, something odd happens during a tour of the palace. First, they pass by an imposing set of guarded metal doors that, after some badgering, their guide identifies as the entrance to 'The Caves of Sombra', a massive complex of caves in which Sombra performed horrific experiments and kept many of his darkest secrets. Fortunately, Cheerilee is able to curtail the inevitable interest of the children present.

However, when they then go on to the palace library, someone calls the guide over to ask about a hatch in the wall. When the guide and an interested Icy come to look, though, neither can see it. Nevertheless, the filly, one of the Manehattan children, insists it's there, though Icy is confused both by that and the fact she can see such things through the sunglasses she's wearing. Alula soon arrives too, though, and confirms that that section is covered by an illusion, pointing out the minute discrepancies. After a moment, she's able to temporarily dispel the illusion to reveal, indeed, a hatch covering what seems to be a hole in the wall. The guide claims this must simply be a temporary placement while the hole is fixed, hidden so as not to bother anyone. The filly insists that someone small has been going through it a lot recently, but can't give any evidence beyond a general feeling. Alula is about to argue, but soon decides not to push the issue.

When everyone else leaves, however, she and Dinky hang back and scan it to confirm that it's been used a lot, but whoever when through it didn't touch the side of the hole much, suggesting a child-sized body. And it's realized that the hole leads right into the Caves of Sombra, which is both totally off-limits and very dangerous. Alula insists upon doing their duty as heroes... and alerting the proper authorities of the foreign country they're in. However, to Icy's distinct lack of surprise, the claim isn't taken seriously and it's resolved, over Alula and Lance's objections, that the team must investigate and find more evidence of wrongdoing.

Still, Alula is their expert on covert operations, so takes the lead on getting them back into the library and through the hatch. Once there, though, she insists on as much caution as possible, allowing only a couple of ponies at a time to advance until one section of the caves has been proven totally safe. This causes a fair amount of consternation and frustration from some of the team, but her prudence is seemingly vindicated when they find a pit trap a short way into the caves. Icy suggests making an ice bridge over it and Alula agrees.

Unfortunately, when Icy joins Archer, who spotted the trap, and Truffle, who was at the front of the group to take anything that came at them unexpectedly, her additional weight activates the pressure plate beneath them and triggers the second part of the trap, dropping the floor beneath them to an angle that slides the three of them towards the pit. And, thanks to Alula insisting on the others hanging back until the area was proven safe, none of them are able to help them before they fall in. Fortunately, the pits walls are not sheer, so they simply slide down, but the crystal that makes it up provides no real purchase or way back up.

There's some grumbling but Alula insists that it was still the right call, as it means that the rest of the group didn't fall in and so would be able to help the stuck ones out. However, this is undercut when the final part of the trap activates, teleporting the three somewhere else within the caves. And, as Scootaloo points out, if they had all fallen in, at least they'd have stayed together and could get out of whatever the others were sent into together. Fortunately, Dinky is able to stop anyone panicking and focus their resolve on finding and saving their friends. However, they're stopped by a voice piping up from behind them.

All of this is unknown to Icy, Archer and Truffle, however, as they find themselves in a featureless crystal room. It isn't long before they're contacted by someone projecting their image onto the wall – a filly with a domed, face-concealing crystal helmet and a cloak covering her cutie mark. She greets them, taunts them a little and then brings down the illusory wall she was projecting onto and reveals that the room also contains three monsters – one bipedal with a long, sharp claw, one with four legs and two tentacles holding a metal disc each and one like a bizarre kind of bird.

A fight soon starts and the group splits off – Truffle takes on the tentacled creature while Archer deals with the one with the claw, the latter made trickier when it turns out said claw can shoot lightning. Meanwhile, the bird starts singing and producing some kind of energy that goes to the other monsters and, assuming it's nothing good, Icy tries to stop it by freezing its beak shut. However, not only does this not stop it, it doesn't even make it pause. This seems to make no sense to Icy, making her look closer and notice many more discrepancies in what she's looking at until the illusion she was seeing shatters, revealing a filly playing a violin. Alerting the others of the illusion, they quickly find ways to reveal the illusions enough to destroy them, showing the other to be a zebra with a sword and a pegasus with no feathers on her wings, wielding a shield with each one.

Unfortunately, the fight doesn't stop and it quickly becomes apparent that these new ponies are seeing Iota Force as monsters too and not hearing anything they're saying, so they can't ask them to stop. However, Icy is eventually able to at least make them pause by writing a message in ice on the wall. During the cessation, Icy also figures out how create enough dissonance to break the illusion for them – freezing her front half and stepping away, creating a mould of her real body far enough away that the illusion wouldn't affect it.

After freezing similar casts on Archer and Truffle, the illusions all seem to have dissipated and the other group realize they're looking at ponies. However, the zebra then starts fighting again, assuming that what they're seeing now is the illusion and they're still in danger, despite his allies attempts to say otherwise. Archer is able to dodge his blows for a while and tries to convince him she's a pony but he's refuses to accept it. So, she decides that it's the best way to show that she's not a monster or an enemy is to dodge, get inside his guard and up to his face... and kiss him.

This stops him from fighting, though whether because he realizes the truth or simply out of shock is impossible to say. Still, it gives everyone else a chance to talk, though not before the violinist uses her violin to channel magic and heal a cut Archer had received. She then introduces herself as Caprice and her friends as Moonwing and Zatrathan, all from Manehattan's equivalent of Iota Force. This seems like a bit of a coincidence to Icy, but she's reminded of a saying: Where heroes go, trouble follows.

However, this is all tabled as the group focuses their efforts on trying to find a way out, despite there seemingly being no door. While they think about that, the two groups talk so everyone knows what each can do – Moonwing uses her featherless wings (a result of a condition called Plumal Alopecia) to wield and throw her shields, along with some recall beams to allow her to enure they return to her; Caprice can channel her earth pony magic through her music, sending out life energy to enhance or heal her allies; and Zatrathan is a blade-enchanter (or swordceror, as the others call him), able to channel and infuse his sword with his magic, zebra magic being focused on objects and crafts.

However, before they can get much further, the cloaked filly contacts them again, about to tell them about the “monsters” they were facing, presumably that they didn't need to kill them, but soon realizes they've broken her illusion. Still, she taunts them about being stuck there and, after some conflict over what to call her, she settles on the pseudonym Conundra. Fortunately, thanks to some clever manipulation, Caprice gets her to tell them what she's after: Sombra “Dream of Dread Despair” - the illusion that traps a victim within their worst fear. Despite her assurances that she has no intention of using it, the idea still rattles the group. In particular, Archer spends most of the exchange sniping at Conundra with uncharacteristic venom – as it turns out, she absolutely despises mind control and manipulation and the illusion they were under came unpleasantly close to that kind of thing.

However, because of this hatred, she knows how illusions work – one kind that are in the mind and can be broken, the other that are literal images in the air that are more stable, but also more limited. And, when Icy thinks about it for a while, she realizes that Sombra wouldn't have made their cell without any way out, as his servants would need to be able to get in and out of it and they couldn't teleport. And the group soon figures out that there is most like a door hidden behind another illusion.

It doesn't take long to find it once they realize this, but the illusion is far stronger than the one they saw back in the library and Zatrathan is only able to push it back for a few moments before it reasserts itself, though fortunately it was long enough for Archer to mark the position of its edge and its locks, plus noticing the bolt on the other side. Throughout their interactions, Archer has been teasing Zatrathan a little and Icy takes her aside to ask about that. Archer assures her it's all in good fun and seemed appropriate given how she'd stopped him attacking. However, when asked whether she actually felt anything like that about him, she just shrugs and says “Why not? He's kinda cute.”

Regardless, Icy doesn't have time to dwell on this before the others tell her how they intend to get through the door once Caprice finishes picking the locks. As soon as she does, Icy freezes the area around the lock to make it brittle, then Moonwing wedges a shield into the door crack and Truffle rams it, using it as a lever to break the door. Once that's done, the group leave the cell.

Once they do, Conundra's image reappears, having heard the noise, but they shut the cell door before she can do anything. However, she send another image onto another wall and explains that Sombra designed the caves to amplify and focus his magic and, by extension, that of any unicorn at the centre of it, allowing her to make her illusions much more powerful.

This is soon demonstrated as she sends a sensory assault of lights and noises at them. It almost knocks them out, but Caprice is able to find a way to counteract the sound aspect of it with her music, allowing them to focus on shielding their eyes (or, in Caprice's case, blocking her head off from the magic by Truffle wrapping his cape around it). As they do, Moonwing comes up with an idea: she gets Zatrathan to use his magic to polish the surface of one of her shields, then gets Icy to freeze a layer of transparent ice over it to form a makeshift mirror, which allows Archer to intercept the beam sending the attack and aim it right back at Conundra.

However, before they can do much more, she sends another part of the caves' defences at them – wooden golems used as guards. Zatrathan, though, assumes them to be more illusions, walking right up to them before they show their solidity by punting him across the room. Apparently, he does this sort of thing a lot. However, the others are confident they can deal with them... until Conundra creates a horde of illusory duplicates and makes sure they can't tell which are real.

Truffle and Moonwing still step forward and take the brunt of the ensuing melee, Truffle doing slightly better due to Moonwing's reliance on her shields, which can't surround her in the way Truffle's fat covers all of him. Fortunately, Caprice's music helps them work more in concert, as well as bolstering them in general. However, Moonwing still has to bow out, under protest, to protect the others.

However, Truffle realizes there's a rhythm to the attacks of the real golems due to their effectively robotic nature, and takes enough hits that Caprice can pinpoint that rhythm. This lets them see which ones are real enough for Archer to mark them with dye-arrows so that the group together can take them down. Caprice then does what she can to heal the bruises taken and, after a brief rest to recharge, the group heads off despite Conundra's insistence they'll never find their way through the maze.

They soon prove her wrong, as Moonwing's featherless wings allow her to feel the air currently flowing through the caves enough to determine which direction the exit lies in and, they deduce, Conundra is almost certainly between it and them.

Soon enough, they come to a classic trap – a hallway full of swinging pendulum blades. However, it's complicated by the fact that Conundra has set up enough illusory blades around them that there's no easy way to tell which ones are real to slip past them. She explains that she doesn't want to kill them, just to stop them, as she's confident they won't be able to safely get past them. She also explains that the traps were designee by Sombra not necessarily to kill prisoners, but to scare them before he took care of them himself, given he drew power from fear. During the explanation, she accidentally lets slip that she's not a crystal pony and that she hadn't entirely thought through her initial monster illusion.

Regardless, Caprice starts testing out the blades, Moonwing having worked out from the air movements that not all the sets of blades have any real ones in them. As such, Icy freezes a column along the floor to tell them which ones those are. They then use more of Archer dye-arrows to mark the real pendulums and make it about two-thirds of the way through before Conundra can counteract this by making all of the pendulums too colourful for any dye to stand out on.

However, Truffle decides that the one thing she can't make a convincing replica of, at least in this instance, is a living pony, so leaps onto the pendulum to use himself as a marker. Conundra tries to send a spell to turn him invisible, but Moonwing is able to block the ray with her shields and Archer manages to mark the angle it came along with an arrow, allowing them to follow the path it had come down. However, Icy realizes something's bothering Truffle and, in private, he explains that when Conundra described what Sombra's fear spell did, he couldn't help but imagine what he's sure it would make him see and was very rattled by it. Icy assures him she sympathizes, but for some reason, this just makes it worse. Still, they resolve to focus their nerves of dealing with Conundra and stopping the spell from being used.

Fortunately, the arrow Archer fired allowed her to ascertain the trajectory Conundra's beams followed, allowing them to navigate the maze far easier. As they do, Caprice, Moowing and Zat explain the trap that got them caught and sent to the cell. They soon come across the next obstacle – a beam that, when crossed, triggers flame jets to fill the corridor. However, Conundra soon demonstrates that there are more, but she's put up invisibility fields around them, so the group won't be able to tell where they can and can't cross and, thus, they'll be unable to continue.

Still, they start looking for a way through. First off, they try using Caprice's music and magic to scan for the beams, but that turns out to be very tricky to see and only useful when very concentrated. Then Archer realizes that, since the beams are surrounded by an invisibility field, then when the flames turn on, they should be able to see where the first few are by where the flames disappear. However, while testing that, Archer notices that the flames seem to be interacting with something they shouldn't, and then Icy realizes there must be something that stops the flames reaching the beams even without the stealth fields, otherwise the flames themselves would trigger the beams and never stop. However, since fire itself is simply heat and light, there must be something that blocks both, something Zatrathan soon confirms by testing with his sword. And if such a thing blocks heat, it would have to block cold as well, allowing Icy to use her freezing energy to freeze everything around the beams and show where they are on the walls, as well as creating ice around the beams themselves. Meanwhile, since they then only have to check for beams coming from the floor, Caprice is able to sweep it with her music and find none.

That done, Icy and Truffle set off into the corridor – Icy to block off any beams they need to step over or slide under, Truffle to mark any places where slanting beams mean they need to stay on one side of the corridor or the other,. Plus to protect Icy if possible, something he seems very intent on. It's close at several points, but they manage to get through most of the way and mark where all the beams they need to worry about are. However, that's when Conundra looks in and threatens to set of the fire herself, destroying the ice and anyone among it. Zatrathan and Caprice both call her bluff, remembering her saying she didn't want them dead and not believing she'd be capable of killing them herself, but Conundra says that it doesn't matter, because as soon as Icy and Truffle are through, she sends a beam out to trigger the trap and keep the others there.

However, to her shock and horror, Moonwing rushes forward, managing to nimbly dart around all the marked beams and get close enough that she can throw and ricochet her shield to where it block the beam, relying on Icy and Truffle to catch it afterwards. However, Conundra brushes the feat off, assuring them that the next trap is literally impossible to get through. They soon reach it as see what she means – the corridor is blocked by a group of electrical coils that would electrocute anything that comes close to them. Conundra tells them she's almost gotten into Sombra's inner sanctum and that she knows this trap will stop them long enough. Her logic is simple – they only way they can tell if it's real or an illusion is to get close to it, which is to risk death if it is real. They can do whatever they like to it, and it won't disarm or disprove it.

However, Zatrathan simply throws his sword into the coils, bridging the gap between them and the ground and allowing all the electrical charge the coils were holding to drain away into the ground. Despite his incredible impetuousness, he knows how electricity works and, since there wasn't a source for the electricity, it must have worked by holding in a charge, which he was able to easily release. That done, the group heads on, ready to take on Conundra herself.

Unfortunately, they catch her just as she's entering the inner sanctum and she conjures up the image of a brick wall to block their path. At first, they're not worried but, as it turns out, in the inner sanctum, the amplifying effect of the caves is enough she can actually make her images solid. However, as Truffle points out, the fact that there is essentially a brick wall simply means that it can be brought down and broken through like a brick wall. The group attacks it with all the power and magic at their disposal and, after a while, are able to destroy the solid illusion.

They rush in, only to be confronted with some illusionary ponies Conundra was able to create who attack them. However, as effectively normal opponents, the group is able to fight them quite handily. However, they are delayed for long enough for Conundra to get the spell – or rather, one of the gems that contained the spell for her to learn later. She tells them this while invisible, the echoes making it impossible to pinpoint her position, but Icy gets the others to keep her talking long enough for her to gather energy and freeze a wall to block her way out. Seeing no choice and apologizing, as she feels she has no choice, Conundra unleashes it on them.

As she'd expected, Icy sees the room fall away to reveal a whirling, infinite plane of water approaching her rapidly-shrinking platform. Despite her efforts to tell herself it isn't real, her aquaphobia still sends her panicking. All her friends appear to fall into the water... but just before he vanishes from sight, she's able to hear Truffle say something bizarre:

“Is that it?!”

The incongruity of this is enough to keep her coherent for a few moments and, just as she's about to lose herself completely, she's shaken out of it by Truffle, who's able to disrupt the illusion enough to shatter it. As it turned out, for those without specific phobias, the spell simply showed them things they were afraid of, rather than the kind of soul-destroying fear like they'd all, not least Conundra herself, assumed.

Understandably, she's pretty furious that she spent all that work to get a spell that was apparently a dud. However, after a short tantrum and a threat from Archer, she still has the wherewithal to run away. Unfortunately for her, she doesn't get far before getting caught by a tripwire stretched across the entryway. As it turns out, Alula isn't bad with traps herself.

The filly in question reveals herself, as does Aura Gaze, a member of the other team and the filly who first pointed out the hatch in the library. A moment later, Aura almost trips over Conundra's prone form, leading the villain to sarcastically ask if she's blind. As it turns out, she is, but she explains that she's able to use her magic to more than compensate for it. This also renders her immune to Sombra's illusion.

However, this prompts an argument – Conundra asks how they know about that, Alula goes into all the subtle evidence from which she's able to deduce what she was after... and Aura claims that she didn't notice any of that and just “got the feeling”. Alula irritatedly rejects her not knowing anything, but the members of Aura's team tell her to just accept it.

Regardless, they explain that, when Icy, Truffle and Archer were lost, the group had been found by Aura and, after checking her identification, and that it wasn't illusory, they, she and the rest of her group resolved to work together to help their missing teammates. In fact, it turned out Scootaloo had an idea about that, but didn't think it would have worked. Aura, however, had a good feeling it would.

However, in the present, the conversation allows Conundra to slip her bonds and flee, but it turns out that Alula and Aura had anticipated that and planted their teammates along each possible escape route to cut her off. First, she runs into Scootaloo, who scoots circles around her and her illusions, blocking her off and sending her running back down another path. Then she encounters Grizelda – Griz for short – a very big griffon with a very big hammer, a Yakyakistani upbringing, and, though she initially plays dumb, quick enough wits and reflexes to knock any spell out of the villain, and knock her around for good measure before she can go back.

She then runs into Dinky, who doesn't directly attack her but, through a combination of time manipulation, probing questions and sheer force of cuteness, is still able send her back to find another way to escape without causing her harm. Then, as if by contrast, she encounters Runt, a minuscule minotaur with a pair of air pistols and an intimidating demeanour most dragons would envy. He proves quick enough on the literal draw to knock out any magic, then scary enough to send her running away whimpering.

Finally she meets Lance, who simply restrains her and disables her magic with a suppressor in a matter of seconds before dragging her back to the main room. When she arrives, however, Conundra is still confident, claiming it'll be their word against hers and assuring them she would be believed enough to be a problem. She explains that though they all know what happened, they won't be able to convince anyone else.

Unfortunately for her, Scootaloo's idea had been to get help from Princess Cadance, who had been hiding beneath an invisibility spell the whole time and just heard her directly confess. And, in fact, not only was she able to easily break all the traps between them and the exit, but, with help from Alula and Aura, they were able to identify who Conundra really was. As well as her parents, who are waiting at the caves' entrance.

As it turns out, Conundra – or rather, Persistent Vision – is the daughter of the Equestrian ambassador and extremely spoiled, to the point that Dinky suspects the main reason she wanted Sombra's illusion spell was because her parents told her she couldn't have it. Fortunately, Cadance is understanding enough not to affect diplomatic relations, but does expect them to aid in their daughter's reformation and improve their parenting. Which they make a good start on by placing her under house arrest until trial. In other words, she is grounded.

With the excitement over, the two teams introducing themselves properly, Icy's group giving their name of Iota Force, while the group of Caprice, Moonwing, Zatrathan, Grizelda, Aura Gaze and Runt, being from Manehattan, introduce themselves as... the Mane Six. The author was not even remotely sorry.

Nevertheless, everyone starts making their way back, accompanied by Cadance. As they walk, she explains why Sombra's spell was so ineffective – the nature of dark magic is that it is powered by a pony's negative emotions, making it potentially very powerful but only if wielded by the right pony. In essence, the reason they weren't badly hurt by the spell was because Conundra, for all her disdain and haughtiness, didn't have any real desire to hurt them beyond what was necessary to escape. Specifically, in this case, it needed dark emotional energy to penetrate their minds deep enough to find their greatest fear and, without that, was only able to find simple, surface-level fears, getting lucky enough with Icy and Caprice to hit on actual phobias. However, Aura, Alula, Dinky and even Cadance assure her she would have still have been able to overcome it, though she's not convinced.

Still, they make their way back to their hotel, but Truffle and Icy break off and go to the room he's sharing with Twist, to talk about what he'd expected to see from the dark illusion and what had rattled him so much. As it turned out, he was expecting it to play on his guilt for both failing to catch Twist's possession by the Miniac in time and allowing her to be traumatized... and for being somewhat responsible for Icy's near-drowning. He expected to see a totally bald and bleeding Twist, something that almost happened, holding Icy's drowned body.

Icy understands and, after a great deal of thought about what to say, points out that what happened wasn't all that different from how Alula's overcaution had gotten the three of them stranded at the start of that night or, indeed, from how Icy herself had given the Miniac an idea and made the situation worse. She tells him that what's important isn't their mistakes, but how they make up for and improve on them. And she assures him he's been doing a very good job of that so far and that, even though he didn't feel worthy of asking it of her, she forgives him.

Returning to her own room, she find that, instead of Archer, Griz is waiting for her, Cadance having asked her to swap places with Zatrathan so he and Archer could have a room together. Neither Icy nor Griz understand why, but apparently Cadance felt some sort of spark and found something 'cute'. Regardless, they both accept it and get ready for bed, only to be interrupted by a mysterious, cloaked figure who had been travelling up for the whole story, intent on meeting Icy for some reason.

The figure is, as it turns out, Pinkie Pie, garbed and acting as she insists travellers should. And she's there to resume Icy's ice-skating lessons, which had required skating on a frozen lake and, as such, been understandably cut short when she's acquired her phobia. However, as Pinkie points out, there's no shortage of ice outside the Empire's borders without any water beneath them. Icy is dubious that a one-week crash course will be enough to get her even competent, but decides that, for once, this is an illusion worth chasing.

Comments

[LegallyFluffy]

Dude, you know how to get someone excited about a story!

[Herald of Opera]

Has the rare ability of “actual established character on the show”, but this is unlikely to come up.

You joke, but it means she has friends in stupefyingly high places. Even if there are good reasons not to drag Twilight or Rainbow into such-and-such a mess, it's at least worth a digression for her to explain them.

EDIT: Upon closer inspection and more reading, this actually came up in something posted before this blog. I believe this qualifies as "called it".